Track: Slugsinger

It’s often said that artistic originality is overrated in these post post-postmodern times. Certainly there are plenty of bands who, while being regarded as paragons of invention, still peddle the same tired rock cliches. This could never be said of Melbourne duo Go Genre Everything, who couldn’t sound like anybody else even if their lives depended on it.

Zach Von Bamberger and Jen Tait have been carving out a niche for themselves in the crazy world of experimental rock for quite a while now. Guitarist and singer Von Bamberger was, after all, a founding member of Sea Scouts and the two musicians? association goes back to the late ?90s with bands such as Monster Monster Monster.

In the process, they have not only written and recorded about a million songs (most of which can be downloaded by subscribers to their [website]( http://www.gogenreeverything.org)), they also have developed something like a private language and quirky mythology, which extends to manifestos, stage costumes and concept albums.

Still, it’s the music and the intensity of their live shows that always remains at the centre of a GGE experience: Zach hunched over his battered guitar, ripping out mutant surf riffs through a home-built amplifier and yelling his lungs out; Jen in whirling dervish mode, pounding out tribal punk drum beats while singing and playing keyboards at the same time.

But it’s not all furious energy. On ?Slugsinger?, a track from their forthcoming album, GGE reign in the chaos to show their darker electronic leanings. It still doesn’t sound like anything else on the planet, but maybe shares some of its twisted atmospherics with mid-?80s goth experimenters Current 93 and Death In June. Maybe it’s something about Zach’s Vincent Price intonation, maybe it’s the dinky keyboard drone, but ?Slugsinger? makes me want to paint my fingernails black and stalk Melbourne’s autumn streets in a Russian army overcoat, scowling at little children until they run crying to their mummy.